From c8eb7edf7b62da20b2f28ba1d42e96160e668917 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sequoia Ploeg <sequoia.ploeg@nokia.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:43:07 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Allow for omitting placements in recursive netlist

---
 sax/netlist.py | 4 +++-
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/sax/netlist.py b/sax/netlist.py
index d5c29d8..32af2a4 100644
--- a/sax/netlist.py
+++ b/sax/netlist.py
@@ -170,7 +170,9 @@ def validate_instance_names(cls, instances):
 
     @validator("placements")
     def validate_placement_names(cls, placements):
-        return {cls.clean_instance_string(k): v for k, v in placements.items()}
+        if placements is not None:
+            return {cls.clean_instance_string(k): v for k, v in placements.items()}
+        return {}
 
     @classmethod
     def clean_connection_string(cls, value):